Lockers are widely used in a variety of places, including schools, airports, bus stations, etc. Some uses are relatively transient, short term or infrequent. For example, locker type structures may be used for long or short term storage by individuals, where access to the stored materials is only infrequently had. However, in many cases the lockers are used over a long period of time, with the user making frequent access to the locker. Schools are a common example where lockers are so used, with a student keeping a specific locker for an entire school year and going into their locker to place or retrieve items (e.g., books, coats, boots, etc.) multiple times each school day. Each locker may be used in that manner for decades by scores of different students. Of course, in such facilities where frequent use is expected over a period of years, the lockers are typically made of a suitable strong and durable material such as steel or other hard metals.
While many school lockers will have, for example, a shelf at the top of the locker, many students using such lockers wish to have the ability to organize items in their locker to a greater extent than that single shelf may permit. Therefore, students have heretofore added their own shelf units at the bottom of their lockers. Such shelf units have been, for example, free standing structures which extend across less than the full width of the locker, where the structure is put into the locker fully assembled. Still other shelf units have been used which require assembly within the locker. While those shelf units have the advantage of permitting the shelves to potentially span substantially the full width of the locker (i.e., since the door opening of the locker is typically narrower than the locker interior space, making pre-assembled units difficult to get into the locker), they can be difficult to assemble and can be relatively flimsy even after assembled.
The present invention is directed toward overcoming one or more of the problems set forth above.